I had never heard of barefoot sandals before until my pal Vincent posted a photo on Facebook. As I am obsessing about feet and shoes and all things pedial these days due to Bound Feet Blues, I set off into the web universe to find out more.
There are some amazing and gorgeous foot adornments that can be found – here is an example. Isn’t it just gorgeous?
With this current rare heatwave in the UK, this summer might Continue reading
It’s rare to see theatre pieces in the UK about the Chinese experience of life and featuring Chinese actors. So I’m excited that Yellow Earth Theatre are putting on The Last Days of Limehouse, a live drama about the Chinese community in Limehouse, London’s original Chinatown.
From the Half Moon Theatre website, with thanks
It is a promenade show, which means that it different scenes are enacted in different locations and the audience moves from place to place as the story progresses. The show starts at Limehouse Town Hall where it dramatizes a town hall meeting that took place in 1958 in that very same building. From there, the story will unfold in Continue reading
I’ve been blogging a lot about high heels recently and in particular, my efforts to recreate a swaying, high heeled walk for a scene in Bound Feet Blues.
To give you a contrast – and especially to show you who I am now, here is a photo of the kind of footwear that I stride around in these days.
This is the pair of biker boots that I wear most often in my daily life. They are now a bit beaten up and grungy looking. But I love them because they are the most comfortable pair of boots I have at the moment.
I love the way that they make me feel a bit tough, especially with the two strapped buckles on the side. If you know me, you know that I’m really a softy and not much of a hard-ass biker chick at all – but it gives me a kick (ha ha) to stomp around in these boots that make me feel as if I could win any bar brawl…
For me, the shoes or boots that I wear can really affect Continue reading
I’ve been researching how the body moves when walking in high heels as part of the preparation for my solo show Bound Feet Blues. As I am performing the whole piece in bare feet, my aim is to give a flavour of the movements rather than walking in actual high heel shoes.
My Googling on the topic of walking in high heels took me to the Perfectly Poised website of a walking expert Martin Bell who offers a High Heels Masterclass. It looks like a brilliant service for all those women who Continue reading
Photographer Jo Farell is documenting the last women in China with bound feet. This timely and important project tells the stories of these last remaining women who suffered the brutal practice of footbinding through intimate and respectful black and white photos.
This video gives an overview of the project and also outlines some the history and reasons for this ancient Chinese social tradition.
She funded this project via Continue reading
Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a keen (though very slow!) runner. I usually trot along my neighbourhood pavements or round my local park in my cushioned running shoes. I love the feeling of speed (well, compared to a walking pace anyway) that running gives me and the challenge of the effort that it takes, as well as being outside in the fresh air and among leafy, pretty scenery.
Last month, I was down in Devon and had the chance to run on a number of long, sprawling beaches at low tide. One of my favourite stretches was along Saunton Sands where the sand is firm and fairly smooth. In contrast to city streets or parks there was no hard tarmac and no landmines of dog poo or rusty cans or broken glass. I took the chance to whip off my shoes and set off on my run barefoot.
What a sense of freedom to feel the warm sand underfoot and the cool air around my toes! It was like being a child again, running for the joy of running. Without the line of the pavement or the footpath I was used to in the park, I ran in any direction and in a tangle of routes. And all the while I could feel Continue reading
I am super excited to report that we are taking Bound Feet Blues to London’s West End for a showcase performance in October!
I will be performing the full 75 mins version – for one night only – as a work-in-progress showcase at the Tristan Bates Theatre on Mon 13 Oct 2014 @8pm. This will present the full story, building on the draft extract that I tried out at Conway Hall in March and will take the piece to its full conclusion.
If you came along Conway Hall, you saw the piece end with me on my knees in defeat, with my heart as Continue reading
To counter balance the pic of high heel shoes I posted recently – which are not really shoes I’d wear these days – what about this pair of studded and strapped biker boots for women?
Would you wear these?
I surely would love a pair!
Though I’m not sure about the spikes in the toes and around the rim which could do my pals some damage if I crossed my legs and accidentally grazed their shins under the cafe table as we sip our lattes…
I would fall off these glittery black stilettos and I wonder what they would do to your ankles, feet and posture – but I can appreciate them from afar as fabulous art. Captured by Ann Bennett in Continue reading
In the finale of the theatre piece Ten Women, the women on stage tried an experiment. What would it be like to show our ordinary, un-Photoshopped bodies in all their frailty and glory to the world?
The all female cast asked themselves that and also invited any members of the audience to join them. Some of the performers stripped naked, others left their underwear on and still others remained fully clothed. No-one in the audience joined them apart from the writer/director and producer who were sitting among us.
It was a powerful, uncomfortable and also celebratory end to the work in progress show exploring what being a real woman with a real body means in a society where “the image of a hyper-sexualised, grossly exaggerated, objectified woman’s body is used to sell pretty much anything”.
Written and directed by Bethan Dear and produced by Amy Clamp from true stories drawn from the other women in the ensemble, Ten Women is a thought provoking piece that tells … Continue reading
Bound Feet Blues - A Life Told in Shoes 